Months before the first caucuses were held in Iowa, back when Barack trailed in third place, Obama supporters were easy targets for the anonymous loud mouths and bomb throwers who entertain themselves by sowing division among Democrats. We were, they claimed, naive fools ignorant to the realities of our country, just a bunch of "young" "cultists" who didn't understand that the only way to win was to smear the Republicans as hard as they smeared Democrats. This hope and change stuff... it was nothing more than empty slogans for the weak-willed, delusional fantasies for pacifistic progressives who didn't have the stomach for what needed to be done. They said Obama himself had a glass jaw. We couldn't nominate him because he would be destroyed in a heartbeat by the Republican Machine. Besides, he's black, and whites would never vote for a black guy. A few months later, Iowa said otherwise.
As Obama said that night, "They said this day would never come." They still do, but as anyone who has knocked on doors or phonebanked for Obama can tell you, they were wrong and they are still wrong.
Yet, they persist, and as we enter the final two weeks of this election, their dissonant howls of protest will only grow louder. We have already seen the ugliness and hatred stoked by the McCain campaign. Desperate and out of ideas, they've resorted to legitimatizing the ridiculous conspiracy theories of the far right. Unable to defeat Obama's ideas, they have resorted to destroying his person, and in the process, they are bitterly shaping an alternate reality in which they can portray their likely defeat as some sort of dirty trick.
After all, they tell themselves, they make the most noise, so they must be the most numerous. They are the most visible, so the millions of Obama supporters cannot exists outside the "fanatics" who show up to his events. Nobody they know actually supports that Muslim socialist, and no "real" American could. Hence, it can only be some sort of sham perpetrated by the left-wing media.
But again, they are wrong.
The allegedly "liberal" media, of course, is all too eager to exploit and elevate the right-wing hysteria to sell papers and create compelling television. Despite having their own pollsters telling them its a myth, the talking heads and professional bloviators insist that America is a racist country and that the level of support shown for Obama in the polls is illusory. They say America will never elect a black guy and though the hard data says otherwise, they are eager to highlight the most disturbed elements of our country to lend a false credibility to their fear-mongering.
Over the weekend, Politico published an article that consisted of little more than an unconvincing effort at elevating a single loon to the status of everywoman. As Obama campaigned in a North Carolina diner, this disturbed woman chanted "socialist" and ranted to the press pool about how she thinks he's really a secret Muslim. Though the story notes that most of the restaurant's customers were receptive and that one even scolded the aforementioned woman for her deplorable behavior, their stories remain mere footnotes in the attempt to inflate the disturbed minority into a representative of America as a whole.
Even when our nominee engaged the heckler and the press pool saw what an exceptionally disturbed individual Obama was graciously conversing with:
Fanning asked Obama about a North American union, and Obama responded: "Well, you know, I am opposed to it if it were happening. But it doesn’t seem to be actually be happening. The truth of the matter is there is no plans. I’ve talked to a lot of people, including folks down in Texas. There’s no plan to create a common government between Mexico, U.S. and Canada. That’s just not ... that’s just not happening. I know some people have been hearing rumors about it. But as far as I can tell, that’s just not something that’s happening. We would never give up our sovereignty in that way. Any other questions?"
they remained eager to insist that she was an unofficial ambassador for everyone around her:
Obama spoke at length with many of the others parishioners at the long banquet table and got a much friendlier reception as he spoke about health care, taxes and Social Security. Fanning told your pooler, "Some of ‘em are just nicer than I am. I know how some of ‘em think."
Yet, as well all know, even in the Bradley-proof automated surveys of Rasmussen and PPP, Obama maintains a tie or small lead in this once deep red state. How can this be the case in such a racist, right-wing country where the voices of hate and vision drown out all others?
Even in the media, the ugliness of the far right grows louder and more hateful. After Colin Powell's eloquent endorsement of Obama, George Will and Pat Buchanan rabidly peddled the notion that an African-American could not support another African-American for any other reason beyond their shared race. Yet, as with the crazy diner from the Politico story, their loud ravings say more about themselves than those around them. Their attempt to project their corrupt worldview onto others is nothing more than the highest expression of fanatical hatred. Like the right-wing bloggers with their silly conspiracy theories about ACORN, they simply cannot believe that they are at odds with their country, and they are willing to yell with the ferocity of a thousand men in order to convince themselves that they are still the majority.
Earlier in the year, Peggy Noonan published a rather pitiful attempt at convincing herself that Barack Obama did not stand a chance against John McCain. Fearing the massive crowds that had gathered to hear Obama speak, she took a familiar comfort in McCain's appearance at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, writing:
As for Mr. McCain, I think he had the best moment of the month this week at the big motorcycle convention in Sturgis, S.D., when he was greeted with that mighty roar. And his great line: "As you may know, not long ago a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I’ll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day." Oh, that was good.
There’s a thing that’s out there and it’s big, and latent, and somehow always taken into account and always ignored, and political professionals always assume they understand it. It has been called many things the past 50 years, "the silent center," "the silent majority," "the coalition," "the base." The idea of it has evolved as its composition has evolved, but the fact that it’s big, and relatively silent, and somehow always latent, maintains. And watching that McCain event—vroom vroom—one got the sense it is perhaps beginning to pay attention to the campaign. I see it as the old America, and if and when it reasserts itself, the campaign will shift indeed, and in ways you can even see from 10,000 feet.
Yet, like the raving diner and the angry pundit, it is telling that she willfully mistook the artificial roar of engines for the cheers of a 'silent majority.' This was not, after all, the hopeful cheer of some mythical mass of 'average Americans,' but the disproportionate roar of an angry minority, a mere echo of an "old America" that Noonan desperately hoped would soon ride to the GOP's rescue.
She was, of course, wrong.
For decades, the far right has corrupted American politics with pettiness, division, and needless hatred. Dominating both radio and television, they have drowned out all opposition with their fanatical rants, and even as America has witnessed the failure of conservative ideology, they have insisted that nothing has really changed. After all, they tell themselves, since there are hardly any liberals on the TV or radio, they cannot exist.
But in fact, we do exist and in the last few years, our ranks have grown. Americans are sick of the ugliness of the angry minority, they are disillusioned with the stagnant ideology of Reagan and Bush, and above all else, they are fed up with the petty politics of Atwater and Rove. Yet, as the right howls and raves, the rest of America sits silently in North Carolina diners, patiently hoping that the next president might come shake their hand and hear their question. At home, in front of their TVs, they quietly shake their heads in disgust as racist political operatives smear a decorated general who dared to speak his conscience. And all across America, they are happily telling canvassers and phonebankers, "Yes, I'm voting for Obama.'
This is the silent majority.
And on November 4th, if we work to give them a voice, they will be heard.
Phonebank. Canvass. Donate.